Launching Careers, Building Community, and Redefining Success Beyond Retention

Intro: Welcome to Honestly We’re Learning, a podcast from ClearEdge, the marketing agency that also helps marketers grow their careers.

Join Leslie Vickrey and Lesly Cardec as we explore the turning points that shape a person’s professional story, the highs, the stumbles, and everything in between. We’ll bring you candid conversations with leaders and rising talent, plus our own take on what’s changing in marketing and recruiting today. Because behind every success story is a few lessons learned the hard way. And honestly, we’re all still learning.

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Leslie Vickrey:
Hi Lesly, welcome to our latest episode!

Lesly Cardec:
I know, I know. It’s exciting.

Leslie Vickrey:
Okay, before we get started, I have to congratulate you on being a finalist for a Women of Work Award on mentorship.

Lesly Cardec:
Thank you. Yeah, I know. When I saw it I was like, what? It was a really nice surprise. Thank you.

Leslie Vickrey:
Okay. So let’s talk about awards. And I know sometimes when we win awards, it can make us feel like I know I wrote about this in my and Together We Rise in the first chapter, where I thought when I had won an award from the university or different things, I would say, it’s pay for play or that’s not real. They must mean someone else.

When I got the award from Central Michigan for Distinguished Alumni Award, I literally tried talking them out of giving me the award by saying, “Did you see my transcripts? I almost flunked out my freshman year.” So we minimize ourselves all the time when these awards happen. Not everyone, but I know myself that that’s something I do. How are you feeling about getting this award? Tell me more.

Lesly Cardec:
Well, I’m completely different. I’m just kidding. I am so in the same boat. I was laughing because I didn’t tell anyone. Actually there’s probably people in my house would be finding out when this airs. But you know, my mom saw it because she she goes on LinkedIn every once in a while and she was, you know, texting me like, “What is this? You never told me about this!”

And I was totally downplaying it, like, yeah, it’s this work thing and not a big deal. And then I had my best friend who lives further away texting me, like, “How do you…this is amazing!” And da, da, da, but I would have never proactively because it’s kind of like it’s still a little uncomfortable for me to do that. In another world, I think, and maybe, I hope it’s not reality, but when I post that stuff, there’s still somebody on my shoulder saying, everyone’s thinking you’re bragging or or you know, whatever it may be that I’m talking myself out of it, but I should be proud and I’m really excited about it, but I definitely like minimize it because it’s, you know, you get on this list, but you know, how did it really happen?

And, you know, is it one of those things where there’s something else that you have to do in order to win and like does that really mean that you made it? Like you start second guessing your qualification on that list, which is terrible and you should never do that.

Leslie Vickrey:
You were voted in by your peers. So you got it because of getting a majority of votes, which is incredible. Which says a lot about you and who you are and, you know, what you do and how you give back to the community that you’re part of. So at some point when someone says, Congratulations, I once got this advice, instead of all the disclaimers, we should say thank you.

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah. Just like if the one says, “I love your shirt.” “Oh thanks! I got it for $5.95 on the…”

Leslie Vickrey:
I did that the other day! “Amazon!” I’m like, gosh, why did I even say that? I didn’t need to say where I got it. I’m trying to, I minimize, we minimize the clothes we wear, too. I also think it’s such a strong message to share with your kids because I think it’s great for them to see their parent winning awards and getting recognized for the great work that they do. It helps educate them.

One first of all, you’re a badass mom. You are incredible at what you do. And I think it’s super cool for them to see that of their mom and see it growing up.

You felt that way with your mom growing up too and had a real role model. They have a role model, you know, in you that they should get to know too. More sharing. And we talk about the book, How Women Rise. It’s one of the characteristics and traits that hold women back is minimizing our achievement. So can we make a pact going forward?

Lesly Cardec:
Yes. We will.

Leslie Vickrey:
We’re gonna work on not ourselves.

Lesly Cardec:
But for everyone else, like I’m sure there’s a lot of other people that feel the same way and just maybe there’s comfort in knowing that person on my shoulder still is there and and it annoys, annoys me so much. You’re not alone. We’re all fighting the good fight to to, you know, stand in the space that we all occupy.

Leslie Vickrey:
With that, we have a podcast episode to get to. Should we dive in?

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah, let’s go.

Leslie Vickrey:
Today we’re excited to welcome Milissa Ales-Barnicoat, CEO of AlliedUp Cooperative Inc. I’ve known Milissa for years and have had the pleasure of partner partnering with her along the way. So I’ve had a front row seat to both her leadership and her deep commitment to creating better pathways for people at work. At AlliedUp, she’s pioneering a new workforce model for the healthcare industry, one that combines a talent incubator with a co-op model to bridge the needs of care providers with professionals who are ready, reliable, and built to stay.

Milissa stepped into the CEO seat at AlliedUp in November 2022. And from day one, she was clear that the opportunity was more than running a staffing company. As she put in the time, the model creates economic opportunities for workers and delivers strong, sustainable results to healthcare providers.

That belief that a job should build a person, not just fill a role, runs through everything she’s built since AlliedUp partners with education to work programs to prepare candidates, then supports them with coaching, an employee success program, and mentorship designed to help people actually launch, not just land, a new career. That’s a big difference right there. Not just land, they launch a new career.

Milissa is a passionate advocate for continuous learning and economic autonomy. She believes a true measure of a great employer isn’t retention. It’s an employee…It’s who an employee becomes during their tenure. She’s also a vocal champion for equity and systemic change, supporting initiatives that empower women, advocate for fair play, remove barriers to economic mobility, and elevate re-entry programs for formally incarcerated individuals. Milissa, we are so glad to have you here. Welcome to the conversation.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Thank you, Leslie. Thank you, Lesly. Both the Leslies! So I’m excited to be here. Thank you so much.

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah, we’re thrilled to have you. We’ve been talking about it for some time. So we’re glad that it’s actually reality now. We wanna start off with something fun, not that the rest of the time won’t be fun. We hope that it is, but we wanna start off with something a little bit different. So if you had a walk up song played every time you entered a room or a meeting, what would that be?

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Hmm. Such a great question. I have one for different facets of my life ’cause I like music a lot. I think in business it would be The Man by Taylor Swift.

Lesly Cardec:
I wish I had that like ready it’s so I could just play it right now.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
If was a man then I’d be the man. I’d be a fearless leader.

Lesly Cardec:
I love that. I love that. That’s a great answer.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
I’m on I’m at Swiftie, so…

Lesly Cardec:
Have you been to a concert?

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
I did. I was able to go to the Eras with my daughters in Phoenix. It was the opening night, so it was fabulous.

Lesly Cardec:
I love that. I tried. I tried. I failed. But she still likes me. My daughter still likes me. But did you end up making a bunch of bracelets and trading and doing all the things?

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
My daughter does some bits of that. You know, I guess we’re on the older end of the daughter, mother-daughter spectrum. But my daughter was seven months pregnant, so we were, you know, we both stood for the show till about hour three and then both of us like, gosh, I need to sit down. It was fun.

Lesly Cardec:
So good. I will get there one day. Next time.

Leslie Vickrey:
Yeah, I love that. Well, Milissa, let’s dive right in. You didn’t come up through healthcare staffing. You actually came up through enterprise workforce solutions more broadly and stepped into AlliedUp CEO role again in November of 2022 to lead something genuinely different, a co-op model built around economic autonomy, not just placement. As you look at all the roles you’ve had over the years, tell us about a decision, risk or turning point that changed your trajectory.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
You know, I’ve been in staffing forever and I’ve done every kind of staffing. So from, you know, it started out in light industrial back in the time when light industrial was on fire in the United States and you know, then from there I’ve been in, you know, creative, engineering, and then obviously tech, you know, that became the thing. So I can’t think of a type of staffing I haven’t done legal, but healthcare.

And so to me it was like, look, at the end of the day, finding people jobs is very, while the industries are different, I’ve always enjoyed learning about different industries. I think, you know, business-wise, I think early on, that sort of kind of laid the foundation of how I feel.

I was in Mexico, at the time I was with one of the big global partners and I had just been in Mexico with my church group and we were building, we were going into really waste dumps and building houses for people that were living in these dumps. And building houses meant laying a foundation and you know, putting up similar to like a shed you would build in the United States. And it, you know, it was really, I was, took teenagers down there. And so I went back to Mexico shortly thereafter and we were placing workers into factories in the same town.

And the woman that we built the house for was a factory worker. And it always stuck and I remember talking to the country manager at the time and saying, like, we’re paying people and they live in a dump, like literally. And that always kind of stuck with me about what, you know, I understand economics in different countries and the way it is, but it always stuck with me that this inequity of a big corporation coming in and replacing temporaries and but what’s it like for the people who are working those temporary jobs and working on the wages that we negotiated so hard at that table.

So I think that has always been underlying in in my beliefs of what it’s just been this thing that I always held on to, you know, and then, you know, the old well let’s just pay them a little bit less so that we can make a little more to get that spread on the margin. If the customer’s only willing to pay X amount and then we need to make our profit, what’s the lowest we can take people? And that has always felt a little…it’s been a something I’ve wrestled with morally always in this industry.

And so when I had the opportunity at AlliedUp to look at things a little different and being the basis of co-op was really an interesting place to get to at this stage.

Leslie Vickrey:
Thank you for sharing that. It’s something that I’ve often thought about too with the industry or just negotiating positions and you look at opportunities for underrepresented communities, women included, where we get excited if we take some of the margin. But what are we doing when we take that margin and not give it to those who could really use that and then you’ve got other people who negotiate more and hire and different things. So it is an interesting moral dilemma for sure.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Not the most uplifting, but…

Lesly Cardec:
It was a moment where, you know, it was impactful to you and I think, you know, speaks a lot to what you do today at AlliedUp. So I think it is an impactful story and I think it’s important to share. You talk a lot about preventing workplace rustout. I like that term. And helping people become more and not just do more while they’re with you. So I wanted to dig in a little bit around a recent challenge, something that pushed you maybe out of your comfort zone, an important lesson that you’re in, maybe not right now or just recently we’re in that has stretched you in different ways.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat
Yeah, we work with, so in a within a co-op we have operational employees, which are the folks that make this happen and they’re you know, our production group, our recruiters, our employment specialists, our coaches and we work with, you know, allied healthcare workers a lot coming out of school. So we work with very new in their career folks, internally.

And then we work with a lot of new students externally our contractors and the people that we coach. And you know, they’re starting out in their careers and traditionally don’t come from areas where they get a lot of coaching. And you think about how to plan for a life. And there’s often that you even talk to college students coming out and it’s like, yeah, God, I wish I actually learned about life in college and how to manage that.

And so we participate as an we’re, you know, we’re a lot of things, a co-op and we’re a union employer. So we do a lot of interesting things within AlliedUp and we also are an employment social enterprise, which means that we do work with the underserved. We have a lot of grants where we go into communities and we’re working with opportunity youth to get them into jobs. And I work with a group called Redefine Alliance, a national group that supports employment social enterprises. And we went through this exercise you go through where you, you know, you get the name of people and you walk through, you know, you walk through and you kind of these life things that happen to people.

And what, you know, it’s very illustrative of what happens to people that come from different walks of life and how one thing can take somebody who is, you know, coming through recovery, getting to a place, they’ve gotten that job, their car breaks down, and how that can send people tumbling down a hill. And it was really, for me, it was recently in Chicago at one of their events. And I really it paused me to think that you know, somebody who comes from one background and has a support service can they can navigate the things that happen to them in life.

And somebody from a different background, one thing can really change the the trajectory of their life and their family. And so that really sat with me. And that was really the notion of we have to do more as an employer. We have to, not just our operational employees, but our contractors and and educate them and give them some tools.

You know, it’s sort of that, you know, you somebody comes to you and they’re working for you. They’re a whole person. And I think within our, within AlliedUp, we wanna make sure that we are working with the whole person, not just the person we need a piece of for the day.

Leslie Vickrey:
Love that analogy, the whole person, because you’re right. If you think about the way we all bring ourselves to work, it’s, you know, especially post-pandemic, it’s our, it’s our whole person. We’re in each other’s homes. And you see, you know, the different things that people need throughout the day, more so than we ever did before in our careers. And you’re absolutely right, that support system to help them be successful is so critical. And I think that’s where a lot of programs fall short where you don’t have that extra step to get, you know, make sure they’re able to get to the job and taken care of through the whole thing. And I have to imagine that also one of our core values is inspire loyalty, inspires a lot of loyalty with you and your team and the company just for the way you allow that whole person to come and to be there to support them through that whole journey is so important.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat.
I hope so Leslie, we’re trying to create community. I mean it really is just trying to create our internal employees and with our healthcare workers is really to have a place where not they just come not just come through us, but they join our community and stay with us. You know, we want people to build careers. We’re not thinking about the placement or the job.

We think about over and over again as people go through, you know, they they land, they’ve got their job for a couple of years. Now they’re ready for the next thing. They’re ready to maybe, some people are gonna get further education. Some people are gonna just want the next job or they’re moving and all of those things. And AlliedUp wants to be that partner that they come back to.

Lesly Cardec:
Which I’m sure leads to, you know, great referrals and great connections with folks that they know too because you’re investing in them outside of the job as well.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Yeah, and and we extend that out to, I mean, look at for all of us, this is health care. And so for, I think of it in terms of great patient care as well. So for our health care providers and the clients that we serve, ensuring that the people that we, you know, we either place with them through our staffing or we place through our coaching services where it’s a full-time job that supporting that community ultimately supports the greater community with better healthcare.

People who, you know, we ask our clients to, you know, you know the staffing world and there’s often times somebody doesn’t show up, you get the phone call. You know, so and so didn’t show up. I need somebody, get rid of them and give me somebody else. And we ask our employers to work with us and work with our agency in a different way that if somebody doesn’t show up, let’s find out why.

Let’s give an opportunity, you know, certainly there are times when it’s a standard, they just disappear. But more often than not, it’s my car broke down, you know, so somebody that takes me to work couldn’t bring me the bus, all different things or I need help, I need transportation. We get bus passes to make sure that they can get there the next day.

But to really look at people and understand the individual and what they need, I think that’s for one, it’s, you know, for the folks that we deploy, that’s a little bit of heart and a lot of support. And for our healthcare providers, it’s much more stability on their team. And you end up with much more, you know, this is healthcare. You want people who actually care about people walking into your room and taking care of you.

Leslie Vickrey:
Well, and if those facilities don’t care, they may not be facilities who you want to work with anyway.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Yeah, not all clients are for us. We we typically work with community clinics, federally qualified healthcare clinics, skilled nursing facilities that really serve our community and serve the members of our community who at times are left behind.

Leslie Vickrey:
They need that extra help. Well, Milissa, between the talent incubator, the co-op structure, everything you’re building around financial literacy, skill development, there’s a lot of moving parts. There’s a lot of rewarding parts to a model like this. So perhaps share, you’ve shared a little bit already, but what’s a question you’re wrestling with in your work these days?

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat
Well, you know, we live, the environment we are in right now is treacherous. You know, we’re very worried about funding. There’s a lot of propositions in the state of California trying to address this tidal wave coming at us. and so for me, what I wrestle you know, it’s the financials, right? There’s we have gotten grants in the past to do help develop our organization and help our mission and so I do wrestle with that of making sure that financially we have the wherewithal to do the things we want to do to be able to scale and, you know, survive.

I think we’re on a great course for that. We’re feeling really good. We’ve gotten healthcare providers who also are like-minded like we are, they’re on a mission and everybody needs great healthcare workers, but yeah, that’s always it, of you balance that what can I do for our community and I have to ensure that the community, we can sustain that community over the years.

Lesly Cardec:
It’s interesting times for sure. And I think you hit the nail on the head of surrounding yourself with like-minded partners and others and your network. It just makes challenging times easier, if that’s the right word, but more you know everyone working towards working together and being on the same page and towards the same mission, I think makes such a big difference.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat
It does. I we have a one of our partners down in Los Angeles and their CEO. They hold a charity event every this time of year, raising money for their, it’s a community health group. And you know, hearing him speak about last year the, you know, the raids, there were ICE raids down in Los Angeles and they were, you know, that was affecting their community. It’s predominantly a Hispanic community, and you know, their clinic and we staffed this clinic and all of a sudden nobody’s coming into the clinic ’cause they’re afraid. And so they had to send physicians out and nurses out to homes to help people. And then, you know, he spoke about getting to the homes and finding food scarcity ’cause they were afraid to go to the grocery store. And that, you know, we were raising money to support this group.

And so you do see so much kindness in our world. You know, you can read the big headlines and live in fear. But if you, if you jump into those communities, you really see all of us really, the caring of human beings and caring for each other and so you do get those moments where it’s like you feel so blessed to be in this world where there’s so many people that really do care and go that extra mile to ensure the safety of all of our community.

Leslie Vickrey:
Mm-hmm.

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah, I know. And I love that. There’s what isn’t there a news outlet called the Good News or something where or there used to be where it’s like I wanna, you know, look at that. It’s nice to see, it’s nice to see the community rallying together and we don’t see it enough.

Leslie Vickrey:
I think of, Lesly, the book from Erica Keswin, the Bring Your Human to Work. And it’s simply bring your human. It sounds so simple yet, I know it’s not. But you can hear the just the heart and caring and compassion in you, Milissa. And it’s so touching and hopeful to to listen to and understand fully what you all are doing and what you’re doing as a leader. So thank you.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Thank you, Leslie. I mean we’re it’s near and dear to all of our hearts. I mean we all end up being patients. And you really want people with experience and who care. And you want them there. If you’ve gotta go to the emergency room, you wanna have an emergency room to go to.

Lesly Cardec:
Exactly. I wanna dial back. We talked a little bit about the whole person and the importance of that in life, not just work. I wanna talk a little bit about you, Milissa, and your, you know, the voice or presence in your life that you feel has shaped you the most and why.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat
It’s family, it always has been, and friends, you know, the community that surrounds me is what shapes me, you know, through I think we’re always tested, you know, what makes a person, you know, it’s good to celebrate all the wonderful things in your life, but I think what really shapes you is, you know, trial by fire. You know, we’re all forging fire.

And through all the things that I’ve gone through in my life, it’s always been my family supporting me, standing by me, you know, my daughters, my husband and my friends who really, really shape me and and you know, they tell you the best of yourself and they tell you the worst of yourself and you gotta listen. So for me that’s as simple as that. It’s my family.

Lesly Cardec:
Good answer. Good answer.

Leslie Vickrey:
Yeah, family is is everything as we’ve come to realize and learn. And it’s definitely something that is so, so important to me, in particular. Well, you’ve spent your career removing barriers for other people through re-entry programs, equity work, fair pay, advocacy, and now a co-op model. What’s something you’re actively trying to create at work or in life?

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
That’s a great question. I guess community, you know, I mean that’s really important to me. I think you can be in a place where, that’s hard in our world. People have live in their phones and the social isolation is such a big thing that’s come about because of our devices and living in this world.

You know, even you know meetings, you rarely do them like this, it’s so rare even to go out and see people. So within at work, it really is trying to create that lasting community, not transactional community, and same here in my community here. I’m running for the board of trustees at our local college right now and that really is more about my community experience and working, you know, workforce development, working with young folks that you know, our colleges do need to look at what is the value of a college education today and preparing our children for entering the workforce, you know, and so that I’m passionate about that.

And I’m passionate about it at work of making sure that people continue to evolve and they have a community they feel safe in. And I feel the same way about my community here in Aptos, California.

Lesly Cardec:
I’m seeing these themes emerge.

Leslie Vickrey:
Community is a key, a very key one.

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah, I love it. I really, really love it. so I know surprisingly we’ve we’ve reached the the towards the end of our time together, but Milissa, where can people follow you and follow along on your journey? What’s the best place?

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
LinkedIn. I mean that’s generally for work-wise that’s my my playground there. I’m on Facebook but I’m not super, you know, I’m not always on social media, but I am there and AlliedUp is where we, you know, alliedup.com is where we share a lot of our success obviously our success stories and about us and I think it would be interesting to watch because we’re not done yet. We haven’t arrived. We’re at the starting line of looking at how we can shape this journey for healthcare workers. And really for us, we believe we can transform our staffing business to really serve both sides of the community, both the candidate and the, you know, the worker side as well as help the providers to get great talent, but look at it a little bit differently.

Leslie Vickrey:
Well, thank you. I love following you on LinkedIn because you do share a lot about your family and the work you’re doing. You do a really nice job of of bringing it all together. And as you mentioned at the very outset, bringing your whole self. And what stands out to me most today, Milissa, it’s really how deliberately you’ve built a model where growth isn’t a side effect of employment. It’s the point and it’s that whole person.

And you’ve reminded us that the measure of a great employer isn’t who stays, but who they become while they’re there. So thank you for sharing not just what you’ve built at AlliedUp, but the belief behind it and the leadership you bring to the table personally to help drive that. So I’m excited to follow your story. I love the challenge. You’re just, you know, you’re still arriving and building something really fantastic. And we’re so grateful for the conversation. Thank you for being with us today.

Milissa Ales-Barnicoat:
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it and, you know, I so admire both of you and what you’ve built. So thank you for having me. It’s been my pleasure.

Lesly Cardec:
Our time with Melissa went by so fast. I think we both were like, my gosh, that was already 25, 30 minutes. That’s crazy, but it was so good to get to know her. I don’t know that I’ve had the opportunity yet. I mean, I’ve been on calls, I’ve met her, but I haven’t had the time to really dig into who who she is and what makes her tick.

Leslie Vickrey:
Yeah, she was fantastic. And I, you know, for every guest, we say the same thing to all of you, that flew by and we really mean it. It really does fly by because we’re soaking in everything that you have to say. And we’re also trying to pay attention to our take three. So do you want to start with the first one?

Lesly Cardec:
Yes, which is very difficult, just so everyone knows, like paying attention, trying to learn, and then also having take three.

Okay, for me, she started off with answering a question about a turning point in her path. And she spoke about a trip she took to Mexico, might have been with a church group, and they built houses, which is awesome, foundations of houses and how that really made an impact on her about seeing kind of inequality and inequity and pay differences and made her think about how can she do better and implement something that works better for everyone.

I think about our industry and you know needing to have certain margins and obviously all of that is super important in what we do, but how do we balance that on both sides a little more? She’s really human in everything she says. I know, I’m sure you guys agree after watching the episode about just how just a human approach she takes to life. And you, you know, I think one of the things that really stood out was that of just, you know, we’re so, I guess depending on where things are in the economy and the market, we’re so focused on one side all the time.

I’m not saying everyone, but a lot of the times you focus so much on building pipeline and growing the business and clients and all the things. But she really focuses on the worker, which is healthcare for them now. And that’s so important because she said it best. We’re all a patient at some time. So couldn’t have said it better than that.

Leslie Vickrey:
Yeah, that’s right. I agree. And she, speaking of being human, you’re right, she brings it in everything she does. And if you start following her on LinkedIn, which I would encourage our listeners to do, she does bring her whole self to everything that she does, including her LinkedIn posts, which are always super insightful and thoughtful in what she says and she’s really intentional.

I know that’s a word used a lot where you say, you know, they’re intentional about what they do, but she really is. And part of that is because of bringing the human to everything. And she talked about that on the podcast about, you know, who you bring to your everyday is who you should be able to bring to work.

And where sometimes for workers that isn’t necessarily the case. So she talked about examples of where a candidate maybe doesn’t make it to work and the client will say, that’s it, give me another candidate. And she and her team will try to slow them down to say, you know, one second, let’s ask the why and find out why the candidate didn’t show up to work. And oftentimes it’s things that are out of their control that could be controlled with some help.

And that’s where that human side really comes into play. If it’s a car broke down and they couldn’t afford it and it happened in that moment and they didn’t have the means to, you know, get it towed and take an Uber and do the things that some of us would just innately start problem solving to make something happen, they may not have the financial means to do that. So asking that why and then, you know, always saying, Can we give them another another chance? I mean, certainly if someone isn’t working out, they’re not working out, but that’s what a lot of their candidates need is that that chance and someone to take that chance on them and give them that opportunity. And that’s where she talks about being human.

It reminds me of Erica Keswin’s book, Bring Your Human to Work. We’ve had Erica on the podcast, but you know, ask that why, take that step to to ask the why and and be your whole self.

Lesly Cardec:
And I think with the pandemic too, like again, you get that full view of someone’s life in in a lot of cases, but there could be things, just keeping in mind that there could be things behind the scenes that, with just a simple question or reaching out your hand, could really make a big impact.

Leslie Vickrey:
Yeah, I agree. And the last piece, so the final take three, the third piece, a common thread throughout everything she talked about was really community. And the community could be first of all, she said everything for her is grounded in family. And right when she said that, her everything is a family, her why is her family, that is her kind of community. Her community is also her company, the candidates, her staff, the companies and clients they work with, the communities and healthcare facilities they service, the community they live in, everything she talked about revolved around making a difference for the community.

And it’s something that a lot of people talk about, but for her, it felt a little different, like really embedded and ingrained in what she does. And while Lesly, you are having one heck of a thunderstorm right now…

Lesly Cardec:
I know, I’m sure everyone can hear it.

Leslie Vickrey:
…but community is something that stood out to me as something that really I took to heart as she was talking about that and something I need to yeah, rethink about and ground myself in again, as well.

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah, I agree. It was a good reminder. There’s a lot that you can do. Even in your backyard. So really great reminder. Yeah, she was great. I loved the time with her and I hope everyone else enjoyed it as well. We’d love to hear what stood out to you. So please share that and the and let us know.

Leslie Vickrey:
All right. Well thank you again, Milissa, for joining us. And Lesly, that’s a wrap.

Lesly Cardec:
Yeah, we’ll see you next time.

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